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Leonard Ncube Court Reporter
BULAWAYO South Member of Parliament Eddie Cross is a racist bully who thrives on threatening party members. This was revealed by a senior MDC-T official who was testifying when the legislator appeared before a Bulawayo magistrate on charges of communicating insults through his mobile phone.
Cross, 73, is facing two counts of violating sections of the Post and Telecommunications Act after he allegedly sent a racial slur and also insulted suspended MDC-T Bulawayo provincial administrator Nkululeko Ndlovu of Ilanda – allegedly telling him that he is crap.
The magistrate’s court, presided by Gladmore Mushove, was reduced to a verbal sparring session as Ndlovu and Advocate Tim Cherry, representing Cross, argued.
An emotional Ndlovu said Cross was interfering in the party’s provincial affairs when he was not in the structures.
“He has always been a racist. He takes advantage of the fact that he is very influential in the party because of his race and that he is one of the fundraisers for the party,” Ndlovu charged.
“He cannot tell me to leave my motherland because of his money that he got from the United Kingdom and United States. Cross is not an executive member in Bulawayo province.”
Ndlovu said Cross was only an ex-officio provincial member who comes by invitation.
“Why does he always come to cause confusion,” Ndlovu asked.
Advocate Cherry said Ndlovu opened charges against his client because he was “only annoyed by Cross” adding that he was the one who phoned the legislator resulting in the alleged racial slur.
The magistrate had to constantly interject ordering Ndlovu to respond to questions than to show emotion during cross examination by Advocate Cherry.
Instead of dwelling on the issues surrounding the case at hand, Advocate Cherry and Ndlovu focused on events before the July 31 harmonised elections when the latter allegedly phoned the legislator advising him to return the money he had allegedly taken after misrepresentation.
Advocate Cherry alleged that Ndlovu misappropriated some funds and went on to allege that Cross fraudulently claimed more than the allocations pegged by the party for polling agents.
It is Ndlovu’s contention that his party had prescribed that each polling station was to have three party polling agents but Cross misrepresented that the national council had agreed that there should be four, and he was allegedly given money for four people per station.
Cross denies the charges. Ndlovu told the court that although he attended a disciplinary hearing meant to fire him from work, he was not aware of the results.
“I am not aware that I was dismissed although I attended the hearing. I am not aware of the outcome. I just saw it on the Internet and heard Cross talking on an American radio station that I had been suspended. Cross has no right to dismiss me,” said Ndlovu who could not give the date when the alleged stories about his suspension were published.
The defence team has argued that Cross did not make the call but was phoned by Ndlovu. It is alleged that during the conversation, Cross said: “Black people shall never run this country properly. You are stupid and talking crap.”
Ndlovu was offended and reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of Cross. Ndlovu allegedly received $66,470 from the party’s head office in Harare on behalf of the Bulawayo province.
The money came in two batches for payment of the party’s polling agents during the elections. Each polling station was supposed to have three agents.
It, however, emerged that Cross took money for four polling agents while other candidates including the member of the National Assembly for Nkulumane Thamsanqa Mahlangu, Dorcas Sibanda (Bulawayo Central), Tabitha Khumalo (Bulawayo East) and Mpopoma-Pelandaba MP, Bekithemba Nyathi ended up not fielding the required number of polling agents.
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